Practical People

Practical people, I have been told,

Weary of the sea for his waves go up and down

Endlessly to no visible purpose;

Tire of the tides, for the tides are tireless, the tides

Are well content with their own march-tune

And nothing accomplished is no matter to them.

It seems wasteful to practical people.

And that the nations labor and gather and dissolve

Into destruction; the stars sharpen

Their spirit of splendor, and then it dims, and the stars

Darken; and that the spirit of man

Sharpens up to maturity and cools dull

With age, dies, and rusts out of service;

And all these tidal gatherings, growth and decay,

Shining and darkening, are forever

Renewed; and the whole cycle impenitently

Revolves, and all the past is future:–––

Make it a difficult world… for practical people.